The application must expose an HTTP endpoint that calls cowboy_req:read_part/1,2 to process multipart/form-data request bodies. Deployments that do not handle multipart uploads are not affected.
" } ], "value": "The application must expose an HTTP endpoint that calls cowboy_req:read_part/1,2 to process multipart/form-data request bodies. Deployments that do not handle multipart uploads are not affected." } ], "cpeApplicability": [ { "nodes": [ { "cpeMatch": [ { "criteria": "cpe:2.3:a:ninenines:cowboy:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*", "versionEndExcluding": "2.15.0", "versionStartIncluding": "2.0.0", "vulnerable": true } ], "negate": false, "operator": "OR" } ] } ], "credits": [ { "lang": "en", "type": "finder", "value": "Peter Ullrich" }, { "lang": "en", "type": "remediation developer", "value": "Loïc Hoguin" } ], "descriptions": [ { "lang": "en", "supportingMedia": [ { "base64": false, "type": "text/html", "value": "Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling vulnerability in ninenines cowboy allows denial of service via unbounded buffer accumulation in multipart header parsing.
cowboy_req:read_part/3 in src/cowboy_req.erl accumulates incoming request bytes into a Buffer binary with no upper-bound check. When cow_multipart:parse_headers/2 returns more or {more, Buffer2}, the function reads up to Length bytes (default 64 KB) from the request body and recurses with the enlarged buffer. There is no equivalent of the byte_size(Acc) > Length guard present in the sibling function read_part_body/4. An unauthenticated attacker can send a multipart/form-data request whose body never yields a complete header section — for example, a body that never contains the advertised boundary delimiter, or one whose header lines never contain \\r\\n\\r\\n — and force the server process to accumulate memory linearly with the bytes the protocol layer is willing to deliver. A handful of concurrent such uploads is sufficient to exhaust BEAM memory.
This issue affects cowboy from 2.0.0 before 2.15.0.
" } ], "value": "Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling vulnerability in ninenines cowboy allows denial of service via unbounded buffer accumulation in multipart header parsing.\n\ncowboy_req:read_part/3 in src/cowboy_req.erl accumulates incoming request bytes into a Buffer binary with no upper-bound check. When cow_multipart:parse_headers/2 returns more or {more, Buffer2}, the function reads up to Length bytes (default 64 KB) from the request body and recurses with the enlarged buffer. There is no equivalent of the byte_size(Acc) > Length guard present in the sibling function read_part_body/4. An unauthenticated attacker can send a multipart/form-data request whose body never yields a complete header section — for example, a body that never contains the advertised boundary delimiter, or one whose header lines never contain \\r\\n\\r\\n — and force the server process to accumulate memory linearly with the bytes the protocol layer is willing to deliver. A handful of concurrent such uploads is sufficient to exhaust BEAM memory.\n\nThis issue affects cowboy from 2.0.0 before 2.15.0." } ], "impacts": [ { "capecId": "CAPEC-130", "descriptions": [ { "lang": "en", "value": "CAPEC-130 Excessive Allocation" } ] } ], "metrics": [ { "cvssV4_0": { "attackComplexity": "LOW", "attackRequirements": "PRESENT", "attackVector": "NETWORK", "baseScore": 8.2, "baseSeverity": "HIGH", "privilegesRequired": "NONE", "subAvailabilityImpact": "NONE", "subConfidentialityImpact": "NONE", "subIntegrityImpact": "NONE", "userInteraction": "NONE", "vectorString": "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N", "version": "4.0", "vulnAvailabilityImpact": "HIGH", "vulnConfidentialityImpact": "NONE", "vulnIntegrityImpact": "NONE" }, "format": "CVSS", "scenarios": [ { "lang": "en", "value": "GENERAL" } ] } ], "problemTypes": [ { "descriptions": [ { "cweId": "CWE-770", "description": "CWE-770 Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling", "lang": "en", "type": "CWE" } ] } ], "providerMetadata": { "orgId": "6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db", "shortName": "EEF", "dateUpdated": "2026-05-14T04:30:32.552Z" }, "references": [ { "tags": [ "related", "third-party-advisory" ], "url": "https://cna.erlef.org/cves/CVE-2026-8466.html" }, { "tags": [ "related" ], "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/EEF-CVE-2026-8466" }, { "tags": [ "patch" ], "url": "https://github.com/ninenines/cowboy/commit/5c6a2061b41bb5771c4659fac7d5a822dca5bafb" } ], "source": { "discovery": "EXTERNAL" }, "title": "Unbounded buffer accumulation in multipart header parsing causes denial of service in cowboy", "x_generator": { "engine": "cvelib 1.8.0" } }, "adp": [ { "metrics": [ { "other": { "type": "ssvc", "content": { "timestamp": "2026-05-13T18:46:37.406887Z", "id": "CVE-2026-8466", "options": [ { "Exploitation": "none" }, { "Automatable": "no" }, { "Technical Impact": "partial" } ], "role": "CISA Coordinator", "version": "2.0.3" } } } ], "title": "CISA ADP Vulnrichment", "providerMetadata": { "orgId": "134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0", "shortName": "CISA-ADP", "dateUpdated": "2026-05-13T18:52:29.452Z" } } ] } }